Charles,Hello Gerry,
Please believe that I did not mean to condone any unlawful act. I even have trouble with the Nuns blocking traffic at the School of the Americas. I only meant that the world has become so polarized that there exists an 'I will not hear your position' attitude. Nothing will improve until people start actually listening to other viewpoints and trying to understand the cause of their pain.
I'm sorry, I probably wasn't thinking right when I thought that my introductory statement in my reply to the ogd, that I meant not to pick on you personally would suffice for the statements I made afterwards. I agree with some things you replied about, disagree with some others, but I did mean it when I stated that I had no intentions on singling out the statement as coming only from you, and that I was making a reply directly to you. In all actuality, if the name in the 'From' box had been Mahatma Ghandi or John Wayne, I would've made the same reply. Those statements have been made many times by many people, and you were in no way responsible for creating them; I have seen the basic statements you happened to write many times, and heard them personally also many times and in other instances I may have even thought to myself that 'well, that person must've had that coming...' . I felt some disgust towards myself for those past thoughts and just for some reason had this desire to jump on a big soapbox and say 'hey that's not the right way to think'. I made other statements also about other observations I have been exposed to, that were not in any way contained in the post you sent. Your note to the OGD was more of a catalyst for my reply rather than being something that I had to make an answer to you about. I guess there would've been no way for me to make the statements I did, without the person who had written the original post taking it in a personal fashion, no matter how many disclaimers I made before, during or after my reply that it was a general response and not a direct, personal one. My sincere apologies for any insult you felt as a result of my reply, it was purely a soapbox rant that probably should've just been kept to myself. I was making a statement more to the audience in general instead of in reply to you.
I agree wholeheartedly with your statement I included above. Often people will tune out anything that doesn't follow their line, or won't support their cause. Again my apologies.
(now firmly off the soapbox)
with sincere respect,
charles
getting ready for three orchid shows in one month. rochester ny (gros), ny ny (nyios), and binghamton ny (stos)
--
Charles Ufford
Calen the Border Collie CGC - now in Heaven
Oriskany, NY USA
IPA, Central NY and Southern Tier Orchid Societies
[EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.paphiopedilum.net
Http://www.geocities.com/charlesufford
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